Trump Calls out Merkel’s Pipeline Pact with Russia

posted by Rush Limbaugh -
Jul 11, 2018

RUSH: Funny, the Nord Stream pipeline. This is the special pipeline direct to Germany from Russia, a deal made between Putin and Angela Merkel. Trump called 'em out on it today. This pipeline strikes at the heart of NATO unity. We didn't have anything to do with it. This is Angela Merkel sabotaging other NATO nations by making a straight deal with Putin while every other pipeline goes through all the other European nations. This pipeline gets... For now, 'cause Putin controls the price, it gets cheap Russian gas to Germany and bypasses all of the smaller eastern European nations, and this gives Russia incredible leverage over Merkel! It allows Russia to pressure them while Germany is held harmless. It's bad policy for NATO countries, and Trump has the guts to call 'em out on this! Here is another bite from Trump on essentially the point I just made. Here it is...

THE PRESIDENT: Germany is totally controlled by Russia because they were getting from 60 to 70% of their energy from Russia and their new pipeline, and you tell me if that's appropriate, because I think it's not. And I think it's a very bad thing for NATO, and I don't think it should have happened, and I think we have to talk to Germany about it.

RUSH: Well, all hell got broke loose at that point. You just don't call out other nations like this. You wink and nod. You look the other way. You talk to 'em about it behind closed doors, and then you go out and tell everybody, ""We've had substantive discussions with Chancellor Merkel over the pipeline, and we're working behind the scenes to alleviate concerns," when none of that ever happens! It's just a bunch of diplospeak everybody engages in.

Trump thinks it would make much more sense for Germany to get natural gas from an ally than a potential enemy, but Merkel goes around everybody's back and made her own sweet deal that she's personally profiting from. Other people have looked into this, and it "urns out Trump’s not wrong about the level of Russian imports expected by Germany from its new Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The BBC confirms that Trump’s estimation is pretty much in line with analyst expectations:

"'The latest official E.U. figure for imports of Russian gas to Germany is between 50% and 75%...' So it's right there. Now, you might think, "What's the big deal about this?" This isn't done! NATO nations calling each other out, other NATO nations being told how they're being screwed by...? Germany's not paying much yet toward the requirement for spending certain percentage GDP on defense, in addition to everything else Germany's done by opening its borders. It's a mess, and Trump is simply calling 'em out.

Let me grab a call before we have to break up at the hour. Ricky in Redwood City, California. Great to have you, sir. What's up first?

CALLER: Well, my question is more of a comment. I don't see a problem with Germany, you know, receiving gas from Russia. You know, all this goes back to previous U.S. administration when they went into Ukraine and jeopardized the gas supplies of Germany. You know, later that winter, you know, Germany was expecting supplies. Ukraine was siphoning gas and jeopardizing their supplies, and so all this is a bypass to -- and Germany's national security interests to have a steady and affordable gas supply.

RUSH: Well, all that's true. All that's true. But Germany is a NATO member, and they have a pledge whenever that deals are made with nonmembers. Russia is not a member. This is a side deal that's not gonna benefit other NATO countries, which means it's not gonna promote unity. She's gonna profit from this personally somehow, it says here, and it's generally considered to be a side deal that she didn't tell anybody she was making. Putin went ahead and did it, and it makes Germany now much more vulnerable because so much of their gas is gonna be coming from Putin.

What if Putin wakes up one day says, "You know what? I don't like Germans today. I think Germans ought to freeze to death. So I'm gonna be raise the price." This is the problem that people have. But look, what really happened here is that these kind of things used to happen frequently and nobody did anything about it because diplomats never really solve anything. If they did, there wouldn't be any need for diplomats. Trump is looking at all of these things and saying, "This doesn't make any sense, and we end up getting blamed for whatever goes wrong here? No more." That's it.

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RUSH: Here's Trump's latest tweet on this. "What good is NATO if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy? Why are there only 5 out of 29 countries that have met their commitment? The U.S. is paying for Europe’s protection, then loses billions on Trade. Must pay 2% of GDP IMMEDIATELY, not by 2025," or we're out. Well, he didn't say "we're out," but he means it.

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RUSH: By the way, folks, where are the environmentalist wackos. Here's Germany moving away from clean energy and back to fossil fuels. Natural gas is a fossil fuel energy that the environmentalist wackos hate, plus it's coming from Putin! They hate Putin! Putin stole the election from Hillary, don't you know? It's really bugging them that Trump is now criticizing Germany for working with Putin when they think that Trump ought to be praising Putin and Germany for doing the deal because of the absolute convoluted worldview they now have on the left.

Just for the fun of it, I want to share with you some audio sound bites of the left losing it over Trump and his supposed insult of Angela Merkel and Germany and confronting NATO directly with what he considers to be this outrage. This is NATO not behaving in the best interests of NATO. He's asking what good is NATO if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars in a sweetheart deal for gas and energy and is not paying its fair share toward defending NATO nations from Russia? Do I need to put this in perspective?

NATO exists because of Vladimir Putin, NATO exists because of the Soviet Union, and Putin wants to rebuild Russia back into the Soviet Union. He's made no bones about it. That's what his objective is. So here is a member nation from NATO striking an exclusive natural gas pipeline deal. None of the other NATO member nations are participating in it, and therefore not getting any of the so-called benefits from it.

The Drive-Bys are also upset because while Trump is criticizing Merkel and Trump is openly confronting our friends at NATO, Trump will not criticize Putin. CNN's beside itself over that today, that Trump's gonna go meet with Putin -- it's gonna be a couple good old boys having a yuk-yuk good time -- and, meanwhile, he dares to confront Merkel! This is so delicious to watch, folks.

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RUSH: Mitch in Charlotte, North Carolina. Glad you waited, sir. How's it going with you?

CALLER: Maha Rushie, mega dittos from a 45-year-old Rush Baby.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: So good to talk to you. Hey, you dropped that name earlier that no one talked about in probably 15 years, a real SOB, Gerhard Schroder. This is back during the Bush years. He was best buddies with Dominique de Villepin and Jacques Chirac, virulently anti-American. He caused a lot of headaches for us. He served probably two terms as chancellor and lost to Angela Merkel. And not more than five or 10 minutes after he left office he had a multimillion-dollar lobbying or board position with Gazprom, which essentially is a gigantic Russian oil and gas monopoly. I thought it was so shameful and shocking that a head of state could leave office and go work for a foreign government, essentially.

RUSH: Well, but he did. You're absolutely right about that. I even referenced it briefly here in a little comment. Gerhard Schroder was deeply involved with Gazprom and did make a sweetheart deal for himself. But you say you're surprised that a leader could leave office and within a week have a tight deal made with the leader of a foreign country?

CALLER: I was surprised that it didn't make more waves, you know, here in the U.S. The people from Congress when they eventually lose their seat for not doing their job to represent their constituents, they end up going to K Street or Wall Street to get a million-dollar nothing job to basically peddle influence. But that's all, you know, inside the U.S. and domestic. Just imagine if anyone in Congress or let's say President Trump left office after two terms and signed on with a Russian conglomerate. You could hear the howls.

RUSH: Well, now, wait a minute. Wait a second. We've pretty much already had that. Not with Trump, but how much money did the Clintons make from the Russians? I mean, the Clinton Foundation, Clinton was getting a half million dollars for a speech here, $250,000 for a speech there. I don't think the Clintons were on any boards of any Russian companies, but they were clearly accepting money from Russia. Are you doubting me? I mean, the Clintons are all over the world taking money from foreign governments and foreign leaders as a way of padding Hillary's eventual and upcoming presidency.

The Clinton Foundation was accepting money. They were -- everybody believed that they were essentially selling her presidency and influence to other world leaders while accepting donations to the so-called Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation, while she was campaigning and while she was secretary of state. So it's not completely unheard of. Now, this is not the same as Gerhard Schroder becoming a paid member of Gazprom with Putin and with Russia after leaving leadership of Germany. But accepting money, accepting payment from foreign governments? Why, that's not unknown here in the United States. Anyway, Mitch, I appreciate the call.